History of the People of Trinidad and Tobago
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HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OFTRINIDAD TOBAGO Eric Williams On August 3 ist, 1962, Doctor Eric became tKe first Prime Jvtinister of* the country which he had. led to independence. As an historian and the long acknowledged authority on the "W'est Indies, he viewed the trans- formation of the former colony into a nation from the perspective of its historical develop- ment. His aim in writing this book in the months before the 'Declaration of Indepen- dence was to provide his countrymen with a national history, -with a basic document about their past \vhich could serve as a guide for their future. Beginning with an account of the Amer- indian cultures existing in Trinidad and Tobago at the time of their discovery, Doctor "VC^illiarns goes on to analyze the failure of Spanish policy in the territory, the period of French influence in Trinidad and occupation of Tobago, and the century and a half of British rule, giving a detailed picture of the islands* slave based economy and showing how, in effect, this structure "was naaintained after Emancipation both by the conditions imposed on African labor and the ordinances governing indentured labor imported from India in the nineteenth century. He then describes in full the methods ofCrown Colony government, and concludes with the story of the coming of Independence. continued on backjftap PJRINXED IN GREAT BRITAIN History of the jpeojplo of Trinidad and Tot>ago Scale TOBAGO 5 10 15 20 MILES 10 20 KILOMETRES Roads - Railways -*MH Landovtr /,500ft. CAR I B B Z A N SEA TRINIDAD BlanchJsseusB HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO BY ERIC WILLIAMS FREDERICK A. PRAEGER, Publisher NEW YORK Published in the United States of America in 1964 by Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., Publisher 64 University Place, New York 3, N.Y. All rights reserved 1962 by Eric Williams IN TRINIDAD Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 64-13390 Printed in Great Britain Contents Introduction page vii Foreword ix 1 OUR AMERINDIAN ANCESTORS 1 2 THE COMING OF THE SPANIARDS 5 3 THE BANKRUPTCY OF SPANISH COLONIALISM 10 4 AFRICA TO THE RESCUE 30 5 SPAIN REIGNS BUT FRANCE GOVERNS 40 6 TOBAGO IN A STATE OF BETWEENITY 51 7 TRINIDAD AS A MODEL BRITISH SLAVE COLONY 65 8 TRINIDAD'S LABOUR PROBLEM AFTER EMANCIPATION 86 9 THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE INDIANS 102 10 COLONIALISM IN TOBAGO IN THE 19lH CENTURY 122 11 THE UNION OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 139 12 THE BANKRUPTCY OF SUGAR 151 13 CROWN COLONY GOVERNMENT 167 14 THE EDUCATION OF THE YOUNG COLONIALS 196 15 THE MOVEMENT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT, 1921-1956 215 16 THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE 242 Conclusion 278 Brief Bibliography 283 Index 287 THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO ALL THOSE WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE IN THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE AND AGAINST COLONIALISM, A STRUGGLE WHICH AS ANTONIO MACEO, THE GREAT NEGRO CUBAN GENERAL IN THE W^AR OF INDEPENDENCE AGAINST SIAIN, RECOGNISED OF THE CUBAN REVOLUTION HAS NO COLOUR. Introduction to the London Edition This book tells the story of the travails and tribulations of a British Colony which, after a hundred and sixty-five years of crown colony rule, achieved its independence on August 31, 1962. It is the story of the misrule of metropolitan bureaucracy and the indifference of metropolitan scholarship. Trinidad and Tobago attracted metropolitan attention only in periods of riot and disorder (1903 and 1937), only when the discovery of oil made it an object of interest to the British Navy and British capitalism, only when its in- valuable natural harbour, Chaguaramas, made it a useful pawn to be traded by Britain against American aid in the Second World War. These developments apart, Trinidad and Tobago was merely a crown colony, forgotten and forlorn. No British statesman of sub- stance was ever distracted by it from larger and more important issues, unless it was Joseph Chamberlain, and his connection with Trinidad and Tobago is probably the least reputable phase in his career. No British scholar found it worth his while to pay any atten- tion to the history and potential of Trinidad and Tobago, unless it was Froude who came and went on a tourist visit leaving only froudacity behind. To metropolitan officialdom and the metropolitan press, Trinidad and Tobago emerged, after the revelations of the bankruptcy of colonialism by the Royal Commission of 1938, merely as a colony with a higher national income than its neighbours which, by imperialist criteria, did not need the economic aid provided under Development and Welfare by the United Kingdom. Colonial nationalism, in India, Africa and elsewhere, has given high priority to the rewriting of the history purveyed by metropolitan scholars and to writing that history where the metropolitan country has ignored or bypassed it. The very fact of National Independence, therefore, made this history of Trinidad and Tobago mandatory. Its crannies of the publication, moreover, throws light on one of the dark long West Indian association with Britain which British scholarship has seen fit to leave unexplored. This history of the People of Trinidad and Tobago will, it is hoped, the explain to people, within and outside the Commonwealth policy of the new Independent Commonwealth country. That policy can be - very simply stated to remove the vestiges of colonialism and change the colonial pattern and mentality in every sphere. As this introduction to the London edition is being written, a Com- mission of Enquiry comprising international experts is assessing the and in legacy left behind by British policy which, in law lease, in finance and in operation, ignored the interests of Trinidad and Tobago. vii The nationalist movement in Trinidad and Tobago has in the past five years re-examined all the postulates and policies of colonial educa- tion, in the primary school, in the secondary school which is now free, and in the teacher training college. The University of the West Indies, that British damnosa hereditas which sought to export St Andrews to Jamaica, is being steadily West Indianised and made to serve West Indian needs and aspirations. The Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, currently on an extensive tour meeting the people to ascertain their grievances, receives daily first hand evidence of the distortion and injustice of the crown colony agricultural system and the exploitation of the villages. The small man, a pariah under the British regime which, true to its slave-owning antecedents, emphasised the latifundia and the plantocracy, is coming into his own as a citizen as of right and not of grace in his independent country. Hookworm and malaria which debilitated the population in crown colony days and were responsible for their low productivity have now been exorcised in the nationalist wind of change. The water supply, a feature of one of the greatest financial scandals in the crown colony era, is being rapidly improved. The telephone system, handed over to a British company through one of the more brutal uses of the imperial power, is now the property of the People of Trinidad and Tobago. What passed in the colonial catalogue as roads are now being opened up and made accessible to the expanding population. Tobago, transferred to Trinidad by metropolitan fiat for a paltry 4,000, now holds pride of place among the smaller islands of the Caribbean as a result of the unaided development efforts of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago. All this has taken a mere six years, from the absurd constitution of 1956, approved by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, to the Independence Constitution, worked out by the two political parties on the basis of proposals submitted by the People in their organisations in 'constituent assembly'. If, in this transition to orderly and rational progress, we have erred, it is to the British People above all that we would look for sympathetic understanding, for, after all, we are merely trying, unaided by Britain, to succeed where Britain has hopelessly failed. Port-of-Spain ERIC WILLIAMS Trinidad and Tobago August 31 1963 viii Foreword This book originated in a personal conviction that it would be an unfor- tunate handicap in the field of international relations and a great mistake in respect of affairs and domestic relations, if Trinidad and Tobago were to enter on its career of Independence without a history of its own, without some adequate and informed knowledge of its past, and dependent solely upon amateur outpourings in the daily press. The writing of this book began on July 25 and was completed on August 25, except for the index. With such haste in composition and in writing, and the attendant haste in printing, it would be surprising if there were no typographical errors or failure in some instances to make the necessary comparisons and indicate the necessary sequences. In addition, the book is twice as long as originally planned but it has been thought better, partly for the education of the people of Trinidad and Tobago, partly to forestall uninformed challenges, to let the documents speak for themselves and to quote them rather than to summarise or condense. The aim in writing the book, however, was not literary perfection or conformity with scholastic canons. The aim was to provide the people of Trinidad and Tobago on their Independence Day with a National History, as they have already been provided with a National Anthem, a National Coat of Anns, National Birds, a National Flower and a National Flag. This history of the people of Trinidad and Tobago, in seeking to inform them of their past as an essential guide to their future action, places them and their problems at all times in international perspective.